While reliability and working lifetime have been considered for utilizing fuel cell (FC) technologies in automotive applications, catalyst activity remains one factor that needs thorough consideration for commercializing fuel cell technologies and in particular fuel cell vehicles. Efforts have been made with a focus on developing fuel cell catalysts having a desirable electro-catalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). To this end, fuel cell catalysts show some improvement over pure platinum nano-particles and/or pure platinum alloys nano-particles supported on carbon. However, these conventional catalysts, by virtue of being nano-particles, are still prone to agglomeration, dissolution and other durability issues. Development of a durable and active catalyst for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) applications remains a challenge.